By NICK WERNER
nwerner@muncie.gannett.com

Carol Schafer has been looking for work since she and 10 other employees at Radiology Associates and Bethel Billing were laid off Nov. 8, 2008.

Now Schafer is considering expanding her job search to include nursing homes, an industry she thinks might provide more stability than others.

“It’s going to be a growing field,” she said Thursday. “Everyone is living older. Now you have people who are living into their 80s, 90s and 100s.”

The recession that has affected Schafer and 287,000 other unemployed Hoosiers comes at a time when the country’s largest generation, the Baby Boomers, are entering seniority. So while Americans are growing hungrier for jobs, nursing homes are becoming hungrier for labor.

The entire health-care industry is expected to produce 3 million new jobs by 2016, with many of those jobs coming in long-term care.
Recognizing this crossroads of opportunity, the Indiana Health Care Association and the state’s Department of Workforce Development have launched a pilot program aimed at helping laid off workers such as Schafer find new careers in health care.

“There are people who are hiring,” said Mickey Kinder, director of dislocated workers for Workforce Development. “There is hope.”

Kinder was one of several public officials and local dignitaries who spoke at a pilot program orientation session at Golden Living Center on the north side of town. The session provided an opportunity for Schafer and three other unemployed or underemployed Muncie residents to interact with long-term health-care professionals, apply for jobs and tour the nursing home.

Similar events in Elkhart and Warrick counties drew a combined 37 people.

The point of the event was to give workers some sort of nursing home experience before they make a career decision.

After all, nursing home work isn’t for everyone.

During the tour, Golden Living Center employees hugged gray-haired residents as they passed and explained the importance of a family dining experience for Alzheimer’s patients.

Deb Evans, the assistant director of nursing, was one of many people Thursday who emphasized that nursing home work takes a certain level of compassion.

“We have lots of people who you don’t even see their family,” she said. “So you become their family.”

The long-term health care industry offers wide array of career choices — from marketing to human resources, to nursing to culinary arts — to cater to various skill levels, according to Dorothy Henry, executive director of the Indiana Health Care Foundation.

Workers who once worked in manufacturing might experience a pay cut as they transition to more entry-level jobs in long-term health care.

On average, a nursing aide in a nursing home makes $10.30 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A registered nurse in a nursing home, however, makes $25.03 on average.

Henry said despite a lower entry-level pay grade, the long-term health care industry provides a lot of opportunity for advancement.

Not everyone who attended Thursday’s event was won over by the idea of caring for seniors and those with disabilities.

Derrick Jordan, 18, worried about becoming too attached to patients who were nearing the end of their lives.

Schafer, on the other hand, left the session with an arm full of literature from potential employers and said she was going to visit thecompany’s Web sites to see if they had openings that fit her background.

Schafer earned $9.73 at her last job in medical billing.

While her husband still has a job driving trucks, she said work can’t come soon enough for her.

“Your self esteem takes a blow,” she said.

Contact news reporter Nick Werner at 213-5832.